Every weekday morning, most students are awake and preparing for the school day. For 9 months, this is a daily routine. When school comes to a close in June students have a chance to sleep in, stay out late, and have more time to relax.  Outside of the United states some schools run all year long with often short breaks.

Some students said that they would not be comfortable with this happening here.

Sophomore Francesca Leonard said, “I don’t think it would be a good idea because your brain needs time to relax. Being under stress all the time wouldn’t be good for our health.” Sophomore Jun Chung agreed, “It would be hard and exhausting. It’ll always make me want to sleep.”

Taking away summers away would mean less time to relax for some students. Relaxation and vacationing is important for humans. If we overwork, we could start to not value what is important like spending time with family. Summer’s also a good time to discover new things about themselves. As teenagers, they are still trying to find themselves, which is easier to do when getting opportunities to try new things and make new friends. And if they don’t get time to do this than we will have a bunch of unsure teenagers walking around in society because they do not know who they are and what they like.

However, there are students in other countries who go to school all year. According to an opinion article in CNN, “South Korea, for example, has 220 school days, and a No. 2 ranking in math.” Even though most students would dread having school all year, it would improve their education and they would learn more material to compete on a global scale. An opinion article in the New York Times titled “This Is Your Brain on Summer” was written by Jeff Smink, who is the former vice president of policy for the National Summer Learning Association. He was giving his perspective on what goes on with students and their brains while out of school for an extended period of time.  Smink wrote that “summers off are one of the most important, yet least acknowledged, causes of underachievement in our schools.” 

According to a news article on TeachHub.com titled “Should American Schools Go Year Round?” by Sindhu Nair,  year-round schooling would “avoid teacher and student burnout with more frequent breaks and avoid wasting time on fall review after prolonged summer breaks.” TeachHub.com is a website created by the K-12 Teacher Alliance and provides news articles, lessons, and other resources. However, teachers at ERHS believe otherwise. “I think the extended, post-Labor Day summer this year is too long of a break because it is difficult for some parents to provide childcare for their kids that long and I do think with too long of a break you forget some of your learning but I think the break does have a positive effect in that it allows people to be people–you can do what you want for part of the year and I think that’s important for students and teachers.” said Mr. Gleason, an English teacher. Another teacher, Ms. Brooks, said , “I genuinely believe there is value in disconnecting from organized learning — especially for younger students. All students need self-directed time to explore the world around them. Time to read just for enjoyment.  Also, there are more social pressures in schools that, for their mental health, students need a break from [school].”

Students and teachers both have pros and cons to year-round schooling. Losing 3 months of no school would have positive and negative affects and so would having school all year. This topic can be viewed different ways by different audiences.